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https://poal.co/s/SiteBans/9829

Poal is being brigaded. Making voting history publicly available is a proposed solution.

Let's discuss the good and the bad of this solution, and other solutions we can implement to solve this problem.

https://poal.co/s/SiteBans/9829 Poal is being brigaded. Making voting history publicly available is a proposed solution. Let's discuss the good and the bad of this solution, and other solutions we can implement to solve this problem.

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[–] 6 pts

I don't think it's a good idea. Being able to see how people have voted is a good tool for figuring out weather or not an account is an alt for vote brigading, but I think it goes against the idea of Poal as a "bubble breaker."

I think if people can see the way they've voted in the past, that voting history can be used as a way to dismiss what they say now, and as a way to target users for brigading.

"You're a Jew shill."
"You're a Trump supporter." 
"You're a commie fag." 
"You're a racist." 

Knowing a person's voting history, and the communities that they participate in, I believe, will lead to more insular behavior. People will ignore what you say because of how you've voted before. And then, in turn, because people won't let you escape your own past, you become more stubborn. Unwilling to change because people won't let you forget that you used to think a different way.

That was just me fucking rambling, so here's a shorter reason in the form of a question. What would your enemies do to you if they had access to how you have voted in real life, and can publish it?

[–] 4 pts

I don't think it should.

Total upvotes / downvotes given would be ok though if that's what you meant?

[–] 3 pts

No. I think the suggestion is to let people see what posts and comments you've upvoted and downvoted.

My opinion is that this is a bad idea. I'll go into more detail why after others have put in their thoughts.

[–] 3 pts

Yeah I think that's a bad idea too.

[–] 3 pts

Instead of either:

  • Just a tally of + and - votes given over all time (as we have now, in profile)
  • A public account of every + or - vote given, on what, to whom

We could instead have:

  • A page showing most recent highest quantity of votes either way (i.e. "niggerfaggot downvoted 82 submissions in the last 2 hours") but we wouldn't know which ones, just enough to show they're a brigading alt or not
[–] 1 pt

Personally I am on the fence leaning towards it being a good idea, so feel free to tell me why I am wrong or right either way. Please let me know.

[–] 1 pt

No, very little is accomplished from that.

[–] 1 pt

I’ve designed a page that does show votes details for each posts.

That way you can’t track down a user posting habits, but see who downvotes your posts.

I think it’s a good alternative instead of showing someone posting habits as a whole (useful only for admins to catch brigading alts).

[–] 0 pt

I still think that isn't a good idea, but its better than making all voting history public.

I think its gonna change the way people interact with each other, and make them more reluctant to voice a negative opinion, or their displeasure.

It's at least worth a trial period.

[–] 1 pt

Boobs and I believe the downvote is not a disagree button, but more like a fuck off for spammers and brigading sbbh/srs kinda trolls.

People who like posted stuff will keep upvoting them.

[–] 1 pt

How about only making it visible for banned accounts, with a link to it in the banning log entry. That way anyone can see why you banned someone, but can’t be used against a user who’s done nothing wrong.

[–] 1 pt

Interesting thought. Quick thought experiment:

Alice upvotes Barry. Alice deletes her account.

What does Barry's account say for the upvotes? Does it say "Received 1 upvotes from [Deleted]"? In this case, if Charlie, Danni, and Edgar all do the same as Alice would it then say "Received 4 upvotes from [Deleted]"?

Would these upvotes go away entirely? Would there no longer be a record of voting from that person in the entire database?


It strikes me as something interesting- a public ledger for all decisions made. I remember an argument being made for using a blockchain to do this very same thing.

I can see the benefits- if an Alt is just used to bump a few accounts, it would be easy to identify based on the ledger. However, a person could be browbeaten for their voting practices as well- having a person's voting record used as a weapon against them may reduce the amount of votes from timid/paranoid/cautious users. That would be doubly concerning if an account is dox'd.

I'll need to spend some time contemplating this.

[–] 4 pts

That thought experiment is interesting. Both end results could be abused.

As for the rest, I err on the side of anonymity. Just because of all the people looking to get others fired/arrested for what they say on the internet.

Also, fuck. I remember a time when what you said publicly was not on record forever. I just don't want Poal to turn into a place where you're having a conversation and then some dick comes in and says, "Ya, well, you upvoted this post, so that must mean you actually think this, you such and such."

[–] 1 pt

When an account is deleted or banned it’s status changes in the database, but comments and posts remain.

That’s a “Throat” core design.

That way a user that wants their account back (unbanned or restored from deletion) can easily turned back to active by changing a value in the database.

[–] 0 pt

I’d prefer People see how I vote

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